NEW DELHI: Criticising the unprecedented security arrangements to prevent protesters from reaching Jantar Mantar to demonstrate against CEC Gyanesh Kumar, Left parties on Friday drew parallels with the 1975 Emergency, alleging that the capital was being turned into a “military cantonment” to stifle dissent, even as AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal urged people nationwide to join the protest.
The CPI wrote an open letter to PM Narendra Modi, urging him to allow protesters to demonstrate against what it described as the “collapse of electoral democracy”. The CPM, meanwhile, approached the Supreme Court challenging the “shutting down” of the national capital. The CPI (Maxist-Lenin)-Liberation also criticised the government, alleging that the elaborate security arrangements were aimed solely at protecting the CEC.
In the letter, the CPI in the Rajya Sabha P Sandosh Kumar said, “It is a matter of shame that, instead of engaging with us, your government has consistently tried to silence us through detentions, arrests and house arrests. More than 47,000 security personnel have been deployed in Central Delhi alone… This is a state of emergency,” his letter read.
Condemning “extraordinary restrictions”, the Left parties, said that the curbs are impacting the common people, who are facing harassment and are greatly inconvenienced.
The denial of permission for the proposed demonstration, extensive barricading, imposition of prohibitory orders, closure of 57 metro stations, andcancellation of trains heading to Delhi constitute an attack on the constitutional and fundamental rights of citizens to protest peacefully, the parties said.
The president of All India Students’ Association (AISA), Neha Bora, called on people to continue the agitation even if its leaders are arrested. In a video message, Neha alleged that large-scale house arrests were taking place, and police personnel were searching for organisers of the protest.
Meanwhile, urging people to join the protest, Kejriwal alleged that BJP and the CEC were deleting votes on a large scale. He alleged that the Centre was undermining democracy by deleting the votes of people. Kejriwal confirmed that he would attend the protest along with his family and also urged others to join.